I originally got into this series when RotS came out, and to be honest I'm experimenting with various different game set ups. When you start a game and get the option to check a box for story events, I'm not totally sure what it means.

I'm going to experiment over the next few days but I never have that much time. Does anybody know? I'm after which bits are enabled / disbabled by checking these boxes, not just a "shakturi appear after a while" response please :)

The old story line tells the past of the first galactic war in the galaxy which ended with a nearly total extermination of the previous intelligent life through a self made kaltor carried virus. That is why no race starts at their ancestral home planet - though modders would like the option outside the vanilla story. Leftovers of this war are military testing grounds, world destroyers, old ships and bases and the story ruins giving you boni and goverments. The Shakturi are the menance of the past that were defeated through the virus - sounds a little bit like Halo now that I think about it and the flood - and come back after certain triggers if you activate their storyline. This includes the mechs which tell you of their potential return. They are not in the vanilla version.

Sorry i should've put a tag on the topic as spoiler, can any of the moderators do this for me?

So features from first story line are the groups of destroyed ships and world destroyers, ruins that give you that extra screen-taking-over message about the past war and bonus like "extra happiness for humans as you did something epic before the universe nearly ended"

The second story line is just the mechanoids and the return of the shakturi as the pilgrims who slowly extreminate everybody.

Have I missed any bits? I'm trying to dumb it down as I normally play with all these things off.